Dear Mom and Dad,
Well I just finished eating chow. We had roast beef, shoe string potatoes, pickles, olives, lettuce, bread and cold kool-aid. It was real good.
Well yesterday I received package no 3 and the malted milk balls and nuts sure went fast. The mail has just come in off the copter I sure can’t wait to see if I have any mail.
We are just sitting here on our bunker, two of us, writing letters and the others just thinking.
So I lucked out being made the gunner for a while because he’s the head and don’t have to pull details. Like today, they wanted one man from my position for sand bag detail all day, well since I have 2 men I decided to have each man pull a half a day. All I did was sleep all day or most of it.
Tomorrow we are going to go about 5 or 6 thousand meters (1 way) and check out a draw and then we are going to leave a 5 man LRP (long-range patrol) there, they will stay there overnight and see if anything is moving over there at night. They will be all alone but we will be coming back. We are also going to set up trip flares in the draw, so if there is any movement over there they will trip the flares and we will be able to see it then.
I’d sure hate to be the VC because they will bomb it all up after the LRPs have moved out. I’m sure glad I’m not a rifleman right now because then they might make me one. I’d sure hate to be one and happen to meet up with about a company of VC or NVA (North Vietnamese Army) with only 4 men with me. Those NVA are trained just as well as we are.
Well we just received our mail and I had two packages boy you sure are busy back there in the States. I think I’ll close this letter now so I can see what I have. Tell you tomorrow what I got.
Letter home dated 16 July 1967
How Goes the Battle? 